The commissioning of the upgraded fourth turbine at the Kariba North power station, in Zambia, faces a delay of at least a year, the country‚Äôs electricity utility said this week.
According to the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco) a fire, which broke out in a work area at the hydropower station in September, had damaged some parts of the turbine, which was being reassembled at the time.

Rehabilitation work by contractor Alstom has subsequently been suspended. Some parts had to be replaced and were currently being manufactured in France.

Further, two overhead cranes, which were critical to completing the rehabilitation project, had also been damaged and would likely only be operational again by August this year.

This meant that the commissioning of the turbine, which had initially been scheduled for March this year, would likely only occur in March 2011, at the earliest.

Each of the four turbines at Kariba North was being upgraded from 150 MW installed capacity to 180 MW installed capacity.